EDI­TOR’S LETTER

It has been eight years since we lost Alexan­der McQueen, but with the re­lease of the doc­u­men­tary McQueen this month putting him back in the spot­light, fel­low Celt, friend and col­league God­frey Deeny re­mem­bers the man, his ex­tra­or­di­nary tal­ents and his con­tri­bu­tion to fashion in ‘Alexan­der the great’.

As Deeny points out, in the age of In­sta­gram in­flu­encers who post live feeds from shows, it’s hard to ap­pre­ci­ate how much in­flu­ence McQueen wielded at the time, and just how cov­eted tick­ets were to see his artistry first – and first-hand.

The lines at his shows re­sem­bled queues for rock con­certs, al­though street-style pho­tog­ra­phers weren’t yet on hand to cap­ture the per­fectly dressed at­ten­dees. The scene of­ten de­scended into an un­con­trol­lable crush, with those in the crowd brought to tears if they failed to get in.

So, as we cel­e­brate Alexan­der McQueen in a so­cial me­dia-dom­i­nated world, which he might not have imag­ined but would un­doubt­edly have adapted to, we also high­light one of its greats, Kylie Jen­ner.

Cap­tured in beau­ti­ful im­ages by reg­u­lar con­trib­u­tor Jackie Nick­er­son and styled by Chris­tine Cen­ten­era, here is Kylie as you haven’t seen her, tri­umphant in Alexan­der Wang’s col­lec­tion (which was some­what of a come­back from a dear friend of hers) on our cover, and in con­ver­sa­tion with her sis­ter Ken­dall in the ac­com­pa­ny­ing fea­ture story. She is a suc­cess­ful busi­ness­woman who has turned the beauty world on its head, and a per­fect can­di­date for this sea­son’s new power dress­ing.

Ush­ered in by a third wave of fem­i­nism (see Alice Ca­vanagh’s story ‘Power dress­ing’), the pre­vail­ing mood on the run­ways was an un­apolo­getic nod to Time’s Up and a bat­tle cry for don­ning ar­mour in a brave new world. That man­i­fested in a pro­lif­er­a­tion of pro­tec­tive ma­te­ri­als be­ing used in ev­ery­thing from PVC boots to gloves, and huge parkas to com­bat un­pre­dictable weather. Else­where on the run­ways, de­sign­ers grap­pled with the con­cept of lux­ury. What is be­ing chal­lenged is not the con­cept of ex­clu­siv­ity, crafts­man­ship or qual­ity, but the right to play taste-maker (as Alice Bir­rell writes in ‘Burn­ing down the house’).

While you pon­der these some­times com­plex ideas (in­clud­ing the rise of avatar in­flu­encers – see our story ‘Re­al­ity bytes’), take time out with this is­sue to cel­e­brate our won­der­ful Aus­tralian tal­ent, too. We high­light the best young de­sign­ers in our Vogue View­point pages, and you can’t go past the hys­ter­i­cal Ce­leste Bar­ber (Tom Ford’s lat­est so­cial me­dia muse), who Vogue was en­ter­tained by while get­ting a mani – what else?

Septem­ber isn’t just a big month in terms of our bumper spring is­sue, though, with this year’s huge Vogue Amer­i­can Ex­press Fashion’s Night Out (VAEFNO) re­turn­ing to Mel­bourne on Fri­day, Au­gust 31 and to Syd­ney on Thurs­day, Septem­ber 6. Here’s a run­down of the event …

Join the Vogue team, your favourite Aus­tralian de­sign­ers, celebrities and special guest per­former Star­ley for the of­fi­cial kick-off at mid­day in Bourke Street Mall in Mel­bourne and Pitt Street Mall in Syd­ney. Then af­ter the launch mo­ment, keep your eyes on the Vogue stage for live mu­sic, celebrity Q&As and beauty how-tos.

Amer­i­can Ex­press will be giv­ing shop­pers a great ex­cuse to spend on the night, of­fer­ing card mem­bers $20 back when they spend $50 on their Amer­i­can Ex­press cards, up to three times on the night at par­tic­i­pat­ing re­tail­ers; while the Amer­i­can Ex­press luxe lounge pop-up al­lows card mem­bers to recharge, re­lax and re­fresh with be­spoke Gor­don’s Pre­mium Pink Gin and de­li­cious treats. Plus, spend more than $250 on your Amer­i­can Ex­press card and be el­i­gi­ble to spin-to-win on Vogue’s wheel of prizes. Even if you’re not an Amer­i­can Ex­press card mem­ber, you still get to try the free soft-serve ice-cream the com­pany is giv­ing away all day and night.

David Jones will bring shop­pers a night of style and entertainment with fashion shows, pop-up bars, styling, guest DJs, ex­clu­sive fashion of­fers, com­pli­men­tary beauty treat­ments and much more. The ‘man cave’, a space for all male at­ten­dees, will also be back on the night.

For the first time, VAEFNO will be launch­ing the Vogue Beauty Hub, showcasing the best of beauty from brands in­clud­ing Carolina Her­rera Fra­grance, Estée Lauder and Olay. Visit for treat­ments and ad­vice and to meet some of the brands’ friends and am­bas­sadors. For your chance to get up close and per­sonal with Aus­tralia’s most pop­u­lar beauty in­flu­encers, stop by the MAXCONNECTORS Tal­ent Lab Live in Syd­ney to meet your favourite YouTu­ber or beauty In­sta­gram­mer and grab a photo with the hottest so­cial squad in the dig­i­tal beauty world.

To cel­e­brate the start of the spring rac­ing sea­son, Vogue Aus­tralia is invit­ing shop­pers to visit the Gor­don’s Pre­mium Pink Gin Bar and run­way to savour a new Gor­don’s Pink & Soda while tak­ing in the best Vogue spring rac­ing fashion and beauty trends show­cased on a live pink run­way.

Bas­sike has once again col­lab­o­rated with the Vogue team on the de­sign of the of­fi­cial 2018 Vogue T-shirt. The cov­etable VAEFNO T-shirt ($100) will be avail­able in two colours at se­lect Bas­sike and David Jones stores and on­line from www.david­jones.com.au. New Era Caps has also re­leased lim­ited- edi­tion Vogue caps, which can be bought ( and per­son­alised) from its pop-up and from David Jones, while Stylerun­ner will have lim­ited-edi­tion Vogue bike shorts up for grabs from its hub on the night.

Don’t miss your chance for ad­di­tional prizes and special of­fers via the fab­u­lous Vogue vend­ing ma­chines in the city. And fi­nally, my thanks to the sup­port of the City of Mel­bourne and City of Syd­ney, both of which have made our special an­nual event pos­si­ble.

For event updates and in­for­ma­tion, go to FNO.vogue.com.au and fol­low @vogueaus­tralia.